Glory days. Leeds Leeds Leeds was the official club magazine for Leeds Utd. Launching in 1998 under the guidance of James Brown, it appeared as the club were riding high in the Premier League, back in Europe, and showcasing a generation of new talent. This new title from the excellent Lower Block stable features a series of LUFC player portraits taken by Justin Slee between 1998-2003.
Radebe, Hasselbank, Kewell, Viduka, Harte, Batty, Milner, Mills... they're all here, snapped and captured by diehard LUFC fan, photographer and friend of the shop, Justin Slee. As Neil Jeffries (editor, 1998-2011) says in his introduction "Justin's portraits of those [ ] footballing heroes were effortless and cool, and yet again made my words seem less important. He did that whoever stood before his lens. It made no difference if they were young hopefuls such as Jonathan Woodgate and James Milner, or an established star called Mark Viduka... Justin simply captured their essence as only a top professional can."
And effortless and cool these images are, capturing players at rest, at training, in their civvies, and at ease. Whether photographers would ever be granted such access to first team players now is a doubt, but Justin was, and in this series of shots its obvious that he made the very best of it.
Lower Block documents football culture, lifestyle and community from around the world. Their unique, small run, independently produced products bring to life the lifestyle of a cultured football fan.
Size: A5
Pages: 44 (33 photographs)
